An Eagle Scout is replacing rotted boards in the Cypress Head deck that spans a bog at the Crosby Arboretum as his Eagle project.

The prospective Eagle Scout, Paul Doyle, said the project is an effort to fix what the cypress trees have damaged with their ever growing knees and to replace rotten boards and beams.

The two-weekend project started this weekend and is expected to be completed by the end of next weekend, Doyle said. Its focus will be to fix boards on the deck that have become loose from the growing knees pushing up on them and to replace boards that are in a state of decay.

Older scouts, also in the Picayune Troop 5 of which Doyle is a member, helped with the construction and replacement of the wood, while younger scouts handled pressure washing duties to the nearby bridge.

While the old boards were removed, the invasive knees were trimmed down, Doyle said.

Doyle said he is trying to get the project done before his 18th birthday. On Saturday, rain threatened to put a hold on the operation, but the volunteers seemed unnerved from the light sprinkles that occasionally dampened them.

Scout Master Greg Doyle, Paul’s father, said typically only about four percent of Boy Scouts make it to Eagle Scout. However, Paul Doyle will make the sixth Eagle Scout out of Troop 5 in the past two years. There are about 16 active members of the troop, which includes three Eagle Scouts, Greg Doyle said.

Doyle says what he will do after he graduates from high school is a mystery to him.

“I really haven’t figured it out yet, I’m working on it,” Paul Doyle said.

One thing Paul Doyle is sure of is that becoming an Eagle scout will help him have a better chance of landing a job after school, he said.